Baseball

Slugger Lee retires after 14 seasons

Carlos Lee, a Panamanian outfielder and first baseman who spent 14 seasons as a Major League Baseball slugger with five different clubs, announced his retirement late Thursday on his 37th birthday.

Lee made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox in 1999 and stayed there through 2004 before joining Milwaukee in 2005 and part of 2006, Texas in 2006, Houston from 2007 through 2012 and ended his career with Miami

Over 2,099 career major league appearances, Lee smashed 358 home runs and drove in 1,363 runs with a .285 batting average and 125 stolen bases. He was named to the All-Star Game three times.

Japan's Tateyama sent to Yankees

Japanese relief pitcher Yoshinori Tateyama was traded by the Texas Rangers to the New York Yankees on Friday for future considerations in a Major League Baseball deal. The 37-year-old right-hander from Osaka joined the Rangers as a free agent in November of 2010 after pitching from 1999 through 2010 for the Nippon Ham Fighters of the Japan League. Tateyama made 53 relief appearances with the Rangers over the 2011-12 seasons, earning a 3-0 record with one save and a 5.75 earned-run average with 61 strikeouts over 61 innings.

Athletics

Gay sprints to year's fastest 100m

Tyson Gay overcame Olympic bronze medallist Justin Gatlin's quicker start and sped to the year's fastest 100 metres, clocking 9.75 seconds at the U.S. trials for the world championships on Friday. Fully fit for the first time in years, Gay took control mid-race with a dominant run to equal the 10th fastest 100m of all time. Gatlin finished second in 9.89 seconds in the race at Des Moines, Iowa. "It's been five years since I have been the U.S. champion and it feels good to be back on the podium," said Gay, beset by injuries since winning both sprint titles at the 2007 world championships. "I'm not as sharp as I could be but I'm healthy so that's all that counts," said Gay, who ran another 9.75, this one wind-assisted, in the semifinals.

Ex-Olympic champ Robles skips worlds

Dayron Robles, the 2008 Olympic champion and former 110m hurdles world record holder, was axed from the world championships on Friday after his bitter fallout with Cuba's athletics federation was not resolved. "Cuba has not authorised Dayron to compete due to problems with discipline and his sporting ethics," Alberto Juantorena, the president of the Cuban Athletics Federation told the Trabajadores newspaper. The 26-year-old Robles had said in January that he would not take part in August's world championships in Moscow.

Ice hockey

Stars, Rangers name new coaches

The New York Rangers named Alain Vigneault as their new head coach on Friday, replacing John Tortorella, who was sacked by the NHL club on May 29. The Dallas Stars also announced a new head coach on Friday, naming Lindy Ruff as successor to Glen Gulutzan, who was fired by new general manager Jim Nill after two seasons. Ruff was in his 15th season as head coach of the Buffalo Sabres before being sacked in February.

Agencies

(China Daily 06/23/2013 page7)